Constellation review 3/26

[seasill]

Just returned yesterday from a 12 night on the Connie, and here is my take on this latest cruise:

 

Embarkation at Bayonne...First of all X had printed the wrong time for us to be picked up at Providence, they had 9:45 am when actually it was 8:45 am!!

Just think of the possibilities there...If I hadn't called the bus station 3 days earlier to double-check, we would have missed the bus. I called X to bring this to their attention, however they did not call the other passengers leaving us to arrive at the depot 1 1/2 hours early, then arriving at the next 3 stops with no passengers in sight, meaning we had to wait for them and therefore arriving at the pier later than planned. Big disappointment!

Embarkation went pretty smoothly. we were in and out of the terminal in about 15 minutes and on our way to our cabin, champagne in hand. Raaaa!

 

 

Food...Both my DH and I felt that the Dining Room food had gone down a notch and also the service wasn't quite up to what we had experienced

on other sailings. Not to say that it was bad, just not up to par. For example, one evening I asked our waiter for a suggestion for the entree, that was the one time when I simply couldn't eat what was put in front of me and sent it back. So much for suggestions. Overall the food was good. We did wonder what happened to "freshly-ground Black Pepper". That wasn't offered this sailing.

 

Ship...the Connie is in very good condition, our cabin, 2160, was very pleasant and kept very clean by our steward Jose and his assistant. It was one of the most smooth sailings ever, it's a beautiful ship. Having said that, we prefer the Zenith and before that, the Horizon. The crew was warmer and seemed to have more time to bond, and the food is better also.

 

Entertainment...I felt that it was pretty much same old, same old. As for the Cirque du Soleil, I was a little disappointed. It just didn't meet my expectations. There was this guy in giant flippers crawling all over the audience and popping up every so often in the performance, rather silly, but just my opinion. We thoroughly enjoyed Perry Grant in Michael's Lounge, a very talented pianist and singer, and just a wonderful entertainer who just so happened to have laryngitis this cruise and still packed them in twice a night!

 

Excursions...Enjoyed doing the horse-drawn Carriage tour in Charleston, the guide was very interesting and pleasant. Coco Cay is always a treat.

 

Disembarkation...Very smooth. After having a small breakfast in the dining room, we were able to return to our cabin until 9:00 then, being elite, went to Ocean Liner's restaurant to await having our color called.

 

We had a good Cruise, enjoyed ourselves and hope this review will be helpful to future cruisers.

[gonecruising]

Hi Seasill:

 

Maybe I saw you on the cruise! Anyway, relative to dining room, I found the food to be very good, but the choices were the problem in my opinion. Beef always on menu, but strange fish choices like Drum" and "Clip" and lots of lamb. But I found my service to be Excellent and got fresh pepper every night...just the luck, I guess, of great waiter and asst. waiter. We did go to Ocean Liners and found the food and service to be EXCEPTIONAL.

 

Entertainment-wise, I agree with you. We have sailed at least 20 times on RCCL and found the entertainment there to be much better than on our cruise this time. I also thought the cruise director, Derek, was no great shakes. Never saw him once anywhere on the cruise ship other than on the stage for the shows.

 

This was our first time on Celebrity as Elite members (because of all our cruises on RCCL) and found it to be more service oriented, less noisy, and wonderful.

[deeva211]

We got fresh ground pepper too. All the meals I ordered were very good except for the lobster which was a bit mushy.

As for CDS, I was not impressed either. I prefered the Cirque du Galaxy show 2 years ago on the Galaxy. I thoroughly enjoyed Jack Walker. I also liked the Livesays, the twin violinists.

[Bethwte]

I was on the previous sailing, and I agree about cirque, except that we happened to have a VERY amusing audience participant. He and the 'flipppers guy" did an act together on stage, and it made the show! It had the entire audience in stitches. We also got fresh ground pepper. Perhaps it was your asst. waiter's problem? You really should have asked about it. I would have, a caesar salad is just not the same without it. My commentson Derek the CD: He seemed pleasant enough on stage, but I agree with gone cruising, we really never saw him on the ship. Well no, once we saw him at the aft bar on deck ten. He sat alone by himself in the corner not associating with any passengers or crew. It was very very odd.

[deeva211]

I was on the previous sailing, and I agree about cirque, except that we happened to have a VERY amusing audience participant. He and the 'flipppers guy" did an act together on stage, and it made the show! It had the entire audience in stitches.

 

This is part of the show. Our audience guy did good too which makes me think he was a plant.

[Lois R]

We got fresh ground pepper too. All the meals I ordered were very good except for the lobster which was a bit mushy.

 

As for CDS, I was not impressed either. I prefered the Cirque du Galaxy show 2 years ago on the Galaxy. I thoroughly enjoyed Jack Walker. I also liked the Livesays, the twin violinists.

 

Hi:) just curious....I thought Cirque was only on the M Class ships.

I was on Connie the 2nd or 3rd week they were on.....that was

Dec 2004.

You saw them on the Galaxy?

[deeva211]

Hi:) just curious....I thought Cirque didn't start till 2005 and only

on the M-Class ships.....you saw a Cirque Show on Galaxy

in 2004???

 

The Cirque du Galaxy was not a true "Cirque" show and had nothing to do with the future deal between the two companies. This one was a takeoff from it though. There were Chinese acrobats, adagio acts, and performers who worked on the hanging hoop and swinging silks, etc. It was on the 3/26/04 Galaxy and it was a wonderful show. Possibly the great reception of that show led Celebrity to the contract with CDS. Unfortunately, the current show is not as good as the show we saw.

[Lois R]

Oh, ok:) thanks for the explanation. Just wondered about it

is all.

[Logie]

This is part of the show. Our audience guy did good too which makes me think he was a plant.

 

I was on the 3-18 cruise and as soon as I saw this guy come from the audience and "perform" as he did I knew it was a plant and the show was boring for me after that. A big production show like that cannot take the chance that the guy in the audiance will just pull it off.

 

I live in Vegas and have seen this in many a show. I was fooled at first too!

 

I can't for the life of me remember if we had pepper or not :)

[pamkev]

I wonder if you had the same waiter we had in Sept. Never ever saw fresh ground pepper, when asked for suggestions for dinner none were given. If it is the same we just thought he was having a bad week. I know I never could do what they do 24/7

 

 

Pam

[lysolqn]

We were on the 3/26 sailing also and had a wonderful time. It was our fourth time on Constellation and we found the ship to be in virtually the same pristine condition it was in when we sailed her the first time during her inaugural year. Service was impeccable throughout; staff and crew were friendly and eager to please. This was our 27th X cruise and we thought the long awaited for changes to the menu were positive for the most part. Entertainment was the typical Celebrity offering - not the best on the high seas but decent. We still wish X would go back to offering after-dinner shows for late seating passengers. We loved Perry Grant in Michael's Club where it was standing room only before and after dinner every night. I'd be hard pressed to find anything to complain about on this cruise. I know some folks did object to the short time we spent in port in Grand Bahama Island (not much there), St. Martin and San Juan (been there, done that more times than we can count), but since we love sea days, the extra time at sea was a plus for us.

[c-legs]

Good morning all,

 

Has anyone noticed if the Cirque Du Soleil 's original material is still affixed in the top deck observation lounge where it used to be before X realized that original program had bombed and revised it into its current show lounge act ? I know this is the case with SUMMIT, the only other ''M'' class that had the original CDS show....The original paphanelia is still up there and scheduled to be taken down at the next scheduled regular drydock......as a result of which the viewing from the otherwise excellent observation deck is still restricted...

If same applies to Connie, not a good omen for Baltic Seas sailings this summer....

 

Cheers

CG

:confused: